Village
Taboada is a municipality in Lugo province, in the comarca of Chantada, within the Galician Ribeira Sacra, with about 2,600 inhabitants spread across more than 200 settlements and 27 parishes; it stretches from the sierra of O Faro to the western shore of the Belesar reservoir, on the Miño river. Its name comes from a medieval landowner, Arias Petri de Tabulata, settled around the parish of Taboada dos Freires, although the town did not become popularly known by that name until the mid-20th century: before that it was known as San Tomé do Carballo. The municipality, which has frequent seismic episodes due to an active fault in the parish of Mourulle, preserves seven Romanesque churches, the most notable being Santa María de Taboada dos Freires, built in 1191. At carnival the traditional caldo de ósos is served.
Monument
The church of Santa María de Taboada dos Freires, a Romanesque single-nave temple of basilical plan built in 1191 by the master Pelaxio, according to its founding inscription, is one of the few in the district that tradition attributes to the Templars. On the west doorway, framed by archivolts, Samson is shown breaking the jaw of a lion; the nave retains Romanesque corbels and a window that was repositioned when the chancel was enlarged around 1920, while the wooden altarpiece inside dates from the early 20th century. Facing the church stood the rectory, built in the 17th century on what may have been a former monastery, inhabited until around 1980 and demolished in 2018 after decades of neglect.
Monument
A Romanesque church with a semicircular apse declared Ben de Interese Cultural (Bien de Interés Cultural, Spain's highest level of heritage protection), with frescoes, a pulpit attached to the north wall and the tomb of the first Count of Taboada, Xoán Taboada de Ribadeneira and Figueroa. It stands at the place of San Pedro, in the parish of Bembibre, a small hamlet of just over twenty residents where, not far from the church, the pazo of San Pedro de Bembibre is also found.
Monument
The largest Romanesque church in the municipality, which keeps its original plan intact without later additions and holds inside a stone baldachin of the late medieval period, an uncommon piece in Galicia.
Monument
Manor house dated 1530, of U-shaped plan and fortified appearance, in which Renaissance decoration is superimposed on a structure still defensive. It stands beside the Romanesque church of the same parish and is one of the seven manor houses preserved in the concello, whose pazo heritage is completed by those of Relás, Vilar and Perrelos.
Monument
A 17th-century manorial residence in the parish of Castelo, a good example of the Baroque civil architecture of inland Lugo, with a chapel, a dovecote and an ashlar estate wall around the main block.
Monument
A bridge carrying the LU-611 road over the Belesar reservoir, designed in 1967 by the engineer José Antonio Torroja to replace the crossing lost when the dam flooded Santa Marta, Pincelo and Mourulle.
Nature
At 818 metres it is the highest point in the municipality, on the northern edge looking towards the lands of Monterroso; its summit takes in much of the Lugo peneplain and the corridor of the River Toldao.
Nature
A watercourse that crosses the municipality from west to east before delivering its waters to the Miño, articulating the central valley of Taboada and feeding the network of mills, weirs and hay meadows along its banks.
Nature
A centuries-old oak standing in the parish of San Tomé do Carballo, to which it gives its name, one of the notable trees surviving in a farming landscape transformed by land consolidation.
Curiosity
The head of a hillfort warrior found in the parish of Vilela, whose proportions indicate that the complete statue would have stood close to four metres, an exceptional size among Galician hillfort sculpture.
Curiosity
The tower house of Moreda, in the municipality of Taboada, belonged to the Camba and Montenegro families; in its basement stood the jurisdictional prison, where as late as the end of the 19th century the stocks used on the chained prisoners were still kept. Nearby are the remains of an anthropomorphic grave carved into the rock, a sign of a place of worship much earlier than the fortification, as well as the nearby Moreda hillfort, much of whose stone has been lost through plunder for other buildings in the area. The parish holds its feast day on 15 August.
Activity
A gastronomic celebration organised since 1991 over the weekends of entroido around pork-bone broth, accompanied by spirits, crafts and traditional music.
Activity
A fire ritual that, every 7 September at night, opens the festivities in honour of Saint Mary in the parish of Castelo, in the municipality of Taboada. Traditionally known as the Folión de Castelo, in the same line as other folións such as that of Vilelos, in O Saviñao, in its current form, the Queima das Fachas, large fachos up to nine metres high are raised on the summit of the castro do Castelo, made of bundles of pine needles dried over the summer, set out in a circle and lit one by one until they form a great crown of fire. Traditionally each household in the parish contributed at least one facho. It was declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico de Galicia (a designation for events of touristic interest in Galicia) in October 2008.
Nature
A pre-Roman fortified settlement that gives the parish of Castelo its name and which is still the setting for local festivities: every 7 September the traditional Queima das Fachas is held there.
Curiosity
Three great houses spread through the parishes of the concello, with blazoned gateways, dovecotes and hórreos, which document the rural gentry that controlled the rents of this antechamber of the Ribeira Sacra.
Historical milestone
An inscription dates the church to 1191 and names master Pelayo as its builder. The church, linked by tradition to the friars of the Temple, gave its name to the parish and to the concello itself.
Activity
Held since 1991 in the middle of carnival, it champions the broth of pork bones from the slaughter, served with traditional music and local produce at one of the oldest gastronomic events of the interior of Lugo.